Acer Aspires for your notebook budget

Acer's Aspire TimelineX series comes in three sizes, from a Core i3 powered 13.3" model with no optical drive to a Core i5 15.6" model which is the largest and most powerful of the three. Hardware Secrets just reviewed the smallest member, the AS3830T-6417 which has a i3-2310M, 4GB of DDR3-1066, a 500GB HDD, HDMI out, two USB 2.0 ports and a single USB 3.0 port along with audio and card reader ports. Apart from the annoyance of a very reflective screen, they peg this notebook as a decent investment at its MSRP of $650.

"The TimelineX is Acer's name for ultra-thin laptops with simulated surround sound that promises over eight hours of battery life. TimelineX laptops can be found under Acer's TravelMate (TM) and Aspire (AS) series, with Core i3, Core i5 or Core i7 processors. There are two TimelineX series under the Aspire series, the "old" and the "new." The new Aspire TimelineX comes with a blue casing, instead of the gray and black casing that was used before, and second-generation Core i CPUs ("Sandy Bridge"). The AS3830T-6417 is part of this new series."